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General Climbing Discussion

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take and safe 13-Jun-2008 At 12:33:46 PM BigMike

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On 13/06/2008 hero wrote:
>I like the idea of calls that were ingrained into us at childhood, so we
>remember them.
>

All right true confessions from the dark side ...

On one of my first ever multi-pitch climbs, many moons ago, the leader had disappeared around the corner and up, on a windy day. After a fair bit of time and upwards progression, I heard him yell "safe" in the distance. So I took him off belay. I then noticed that the rope was still inching upwards. I called out "are you at the anchor?", and his voice came floating back to me: "no, I just had a wobble."

I got him onto a hip belay in about 0.001 seconds flat, then rethreaded the belay device. I later found out that he'd yelled "take" because he thought he was off, then he'd found a decent hold and kept moving.

Thereafter, I became a firm advocate of shouting "off belay". It's hard to confuse with anything shouted in the heat of the moment (OK except maybe "bombs away"). But I have noticed people are incredibly resistant to this change, despite what I reckon is pretty sound logic.

At times, I've managed to sow seeds of doubt into belayers who've automatically assumed the distant call they've heard is "safe'. "Are you sure that was ''safe" and not something else?" I'd ask. This would often result in a flicker of concern, and a bit of calling out: "Did you say 'safe'?" ... "Yes, you arse, what did you think I said" etc.

Just because we learnt something a long time ago doesn't mean it's the best system. Just because the Yanks use it doesn't mean it's not a good idea.